Living Unfiltered for God

Over the last several years, my wife and I have been using this expression, "Making memories" as an encouragement to each other to live life to the fullest; to take advantage of opportunities to experience things, together and with others, that we might otherwise choose to pass up. Sometimes we get so caught up with our ruts and our routines that we miss chances to share a moment... an hour... a day... or longer with someone, that may turn into a memorable moment for a lifetime. This morning was one of those times when I had to be encouraged to "make the memory".  My alarm went off at 4:50 AM. I had not slept well and had been mostly awake anyway for several hours. The early rising was because this is July 4th - and if you're a runner in Atlanta, that means it's also Peachtree Road Race day! The problem was, it was raining... hard. And according to the radar and the weather forecast, it wasn't going to change much over the next 6-8 hours. Shortly aft...

HAPPY NEW YEAR! Here we are! The start of a new year! Hopefully you've taken some time to reflect on the last 12 months... What you need to learn from and remember and what you might need to just leave in the past. But now is the time to fix our minds and focus on the future! What do you think God might have in store for you in 2015?  My wife and I enjoy speculating about what the future may bring - we call it "scenario building". Over the years it has been cause for many laughs because we never seem to get things just right. God always finds ways to show up and move in our lives in ways that we never expected. For example, one year ago today, I in no way thought that I would now have this magnet on my car... While I had started running the year before, we never would have thought I would complete a half-marathon in 2014! It took God moving - through one of our daughters and through a good friend - to get me to even consider, let alone train for and compet...

Believe it or not, there are less than three weeks left in the year 2014. I don't know where the time goes - the years seem to go by more and more quickly the older I get. (I know there's a "math explanation" to that, but I'll spare you!) As we approach the end of the year though, I think it's important that we finish strong. Whether it's work or school, we should strive to finish the year off well; with momentum to carry into next year.  That sounds good, but with Christmas coming and all the extra festivities often taking place, the tendency is more to just kind of coast to the end instead of pushing hard. The apostle Paul writes about this idea in several places, often using the analogy of running a race: "Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize?  Run in such a way as to get the prize." ( 1 Cor 9:24 ).  Having taken up running in the last couple of years, I've come to better understand hi...